Though I would like the features I do use to work properly. OpenOffice has some strange quirks when it comes to certain formatting, like making lists. Nothing that individually would be a deal breaker, but after a year of constant minor frustrations, I went back to MSOffice. Fact is, most people just want to be able to get the job done quickly with the fewest hassles, and right now MS Office still does that better.

As the saying goes, "If it can be made, it can be unmade." People really need to be made aware of this fact and stop thinking of security as fool-proof and start thinking in terms of deterrent ability. There's no such thing as "truly secure".

It worked with the Native Americans.

I question your relative activity level. Have you ever shoveled a driveway clear of snow? I can go out in 10F in coat/gloves/hat/scarf and have to strip down to just a sweatshirt inside of thirty minutes. I give off so much heat that my clothes are literally steaming. You're talking as if the body has a finite amount of heat to give, but that's not the case. The heat output is equivalent to the amount of energy expended. If this thing can't power a gameboy, there's no way it can sap so much heat it risks giving someone hypothermia. To do that, it'd not only have to be able to harvest more heat than the body can produce at any given level, it'd have be able to do it over an extended period of time and without the user noticing he/she's freezing.

I would bet money this will never happen. This is what's called a self-fulfilling prophecy. Kids find out they excel in certain areas, and and rather than trying to improve where they're weak, they simply try to do what they're good at. As kids grow up, they tend to divide into groups of like-minded people - or cliques - so they can continue to do what they like doing. And of course, everyone wants to think their clique is the best, so they belittle the other groups to boost their standing. This is particularly useful for the physically-oriented groups, one because on an instinctual level, able-bodied/beautiful people are more desirable, and two because physically-oriented groups can belittle the others in the most direct ways (very easy to see when someone is better looking than you or can/will beat you up). Later on, once these kids are adults and having kids of their own, they impress upon their kids the values they grew up with, driving their kids to see if they too can follow the same pattern (based on another human instinct to find a survival pattern that works and follow it, which is much easier to do when someone shows you the way, and amazingly difficult to get change once established, because destroying a survival pattern that works - flawed as it may be - is instinctual suicide), thus inculcating the pattern for another generation. Most times those kids follow in their parents footsteps, though some either don't or can't (the black sheep), but it's not genetics that foster families with a history of artists, or doctors, or laborers.

Actually,it's a bit too late for that. There have been a few studies that indicate warning labels on cigarettes and alcohol have little, if any, effect on keeping people from smoking or drinking. And considering the prevalence of cell phones, I doubt any measure would have an effect on usage until there is concrete evidence that it causes cancer. And even then... just look at the tobacco industry.

Oh God, when companies start suing other companies because they weren't sued by that company, it's officially the apocalypse. Cue the Ghostbusters quotes.

This isn't a problem in America. We each just get one to ourselves.

I'd say it's more likely the reason it's more expensive is that the major drug companies have the FDA in their pocket. It's easy to charge more when your regulators delay and/or deny competing products.

I was wondering how long it'd take for someone to take the "green" trend and apply it to something not at all meant for the label. Oil is organic in the same way uranium is organic. Yes, technically they both come from the natural world, but they hardly match the renewable/healthy/eco-friendly definition that the term organic has come to mean today. If PR folks keep following this logic, we'll soon be seeing ads for 90% organic cars and other such nonsense.

If they didn't try to, they wouldn't be marketing companies. The smart man covers his ass.

And before I get flamed, yes I know ET was a Spielberg movie, but ILM did the special effects on the 20th anniv. edition.

Lucas could replace him with a two-way radio. He'd be less threatening then and I doubt anyone could tell the difference.

With all the various scissors, clippers and shaving blades a barber has - especially since he'll be using them on your face - I would hope you would go to one you could trust.

Probably because after disasters like the MiniDisc and UMD, Sony finally realized it's better to use a common format than try to make a proprietary one. It's an irritating and ridiculous logic to think making a proprietary format will help lock in customers. More often it will just piss of the consumer and they'll never use the product, one because they have to wait for product to come out for their format, and two because lock-in fosters lazy design (why innovate when the customer has to buy your format anyway?), which leads to a shittier product.

Media companies should take a cue from the industrial world. There's a reason nearly all screws, nuts and bolts are designed the same way; it was too damn hard to stay in business when every company made a different kind of screw.